Page 52 of Not Catching Love

“Ready to go?” he asks, and relief surges through me. I’d been prepared for him to make up an excuse and change his mind.

“Yeah. Can I grab a lift? I told Seven not to pick me up.”

“Of course.” We head for the reception desk to drop off our badges. “You don’t drive?”

“Nope.”

One side of his lips hitches up. “Any reason?”

“Scared of getting into a massive accident and having my brain leak out onto the pavement.”

“Of course.”

“I want to die in a pretty way, you know. It’s more tragic.”

I make him laugh, and it feels amazing. “That’s complete bullshit, Xander.”

“Excuse me, I’m trying to havestandards. Sherwin says it’s important.”

“And this is the thing you’ve decided to have standards for, is it?”

It’s as good a place as any to start. We don’t know when we’re going to bite the dust, so fuck it. When I go out, I want to look good doing it.

“I think you’re going to live to a very old age,” Derek says.

I pretend to gasp. “Are you wishing colostomy bags and cataracts on me?”

“You’ve volunteered here for months, and that’s how you see these people?”

I drop the act, and a small smile breaks out. No. That isn’t how I see them at all. Sure, at first, they were all gnarled handsand fake teeth and wispy hair, but I know where that disdain comes from.

I’m terrified of death.

Go figure.

“They’re okay, I guess.” I hand over my badge to Mary and lead the way out of the front doors. “Except for Kevin. Kevin sucks.”

Derek chuckles. “Still painting poop?”

“Yup. Somehow, he’s even worse at it than when he started.”

I follow Derek to his car. It’s a newer-model black Toyota and somehow looks like the perfect car for him. It’s instantly my favorite car ever.

“I love spring,” I say, climbing into the hot cab.

“I thought fall was your favorite?”

Wow. I glance his way, wondering how the hell he remembered that. “It is, but since it still feels like forever away, I’m pretending it’s not.” I watch his beefy forearm as he starts the car. “What’s your favorite season?”

He thinks it over as he backs out of the parking lot. “I don’t think I have one. In summer, it gets too hot, and I want it to be winter. Then in winter, it’s the same in reverse.”

That’s a good answer. “Molly loves summer.”

“I could have guessed that.”

“Because he’s always so happy and gets stupidly excited over squirrels?”

“Well, I didn’t know about the squirrel thing, but yeah. He seems like a summery guy.”

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